behind, we make sure that we respond as a nation and remind ourselves that whenever an american is in need, all of us stand together to make sure that we're providing the help that's necessary. >> the president of the united states pledging quick relief for the millions of victims of hurricane sandy and the northeast will need a lot of that help and soon. the historic storm carved a trail of destruction whose magnitude was stunning as the sun came up on stus. sandy now as you can see in this radar moving up toward canada. this morning the associated press reports the storm has killed at least 50 people. there are more than 8.2 million households still without power across 17 states and many of those outages could well last beyond election day. when damage to property and the economy, the total impact expected to reach a staggering $50 billion. at this hour, another flooding

crisis straight across the river here in manhattan in hoboken, noounlg, where the national guard arrived late last night to help evacuate residents. the storm surge from sandy covered most of the southern part of that town with water trapping residents in their homes and leaving most without power. hoboken's mayor spoke last night on the massive extent of the damage. >> we still have severe flooding in the city of hoboken, probably half our city is flooded. we have about 20,000 people that still remain in their homes and we're trying to put together an evacuation plan, get the equipment here. we can't get down so many city streets and really concerned about the residents stranded in their homes right now. >> meanwhile the northern part of hoboken, here you see an incredible photograph of a parking lot full of submerged taxis. the storm surge forced floodwaters into the station

that connects hoboken to new york city. officials say it could be at least 7 to 10 days before service will be restored there. we'll have a live report from hoboken a little later in the show. meanwhile miles of the eastern seaboard particularly along the jersey shore look completely unrecognizable this morning as these breath taki king aerial pictures show us. today president obama is scheduled to arrive in atlantic city to survey the damage alongside governor chris christie. the governor who yesterday praised the president's handling of the disaster said he will ask for the army core of engineer's help in rebuilding the shore line, a huge project. nbc's danielle lee is in toms river, new jersey, just north of atlantic city. danielle, what are you seeing there? >> reporter: good morning. well, where i'm standing is along the road that you have to take to get from toms river, new jersey, to the jersey shore where you're talking about all that devastation.

it's still closed today and right where i'm standing just yesterday was completely submerged in water. now that the floods have subsided, the damage is almost hard to describe. look behind me, a boat that floated in the middle of the road. and if you look over here, this is a patio from somebody's home that was washed into this parking lot. it does not belong here. and all along the patio are just bits and pieces of people's lives, decorations, things that were just ripped apart, stripped from them. it's not surprising when you consider all of the damage at places like seaside heights where homes are submerged by sand and water and point pleasant where there's severe flooding. the damage is incredible. officers here tell me it will be a couple days before they even open the roads because of the danger and we're talking about weeks and months to rebuild. as you mentioned, president obama will be here later today is too survey the damage. they will also begin efforts to rescue people who are still stranded.

we were here late last night and i got to talk to the last group of people brought over from seaside heights and i have not seen a more tired and just distraught group of people. they looked so which haexhauste they said it's terrible over there. >> danielle lee, thanks so much. half of manhattan remains without power. could be days before the lights come on on below 34th street. new york city's 108-year-old subway system remains shut down. this video posted by the mta at the south ferry station, pretty much tells you the story. train tunnels under the east river used by amtrak and long island railroad also flooded. the arm corps of engineers has flown in a team to assess how to begin to drain all that water. as for the airports, jfk and newark, liberty international expected to resume limited service this morning at 7:00 a.m. the same cannot be said for laguardia.

jetblue posted these videos of the runway submerged. more than 18,000 flights already have been canceled as a result of sandy. on stat ten islands, a tanker, look at this picture, nearly 170 feet long still washed ashore. it broke loose from a marina about a half a mile away. and a police held cop p ter captured crews saving storm victims from rooftops there in staten island after floodwaters surrounded their homes. they were loaded one by one into baskets because they were hoisted to safety. and in the breezy point neighborhood of queens, this one of the most heartbreaking disasters of the entire crisis. looked absolutely like a war zone after a fire devastated that small community. a report now that more than 100 homes were destroyed. officials say high winds from the storm pushed the flames from one building tos next. amazingly no serious injuries were reported.

that was one of the regions here in new york that had been evacuated. for more on the situation there, the weather channel's stephanie abrams joins us from the western end of the rockaway peninsula. stephanie, what are you seeing there this morning? >> reporter: well, willie, interestingly enough, we're still seeing fire. you see at the top of this pole, it's still burning. that just happened. and with the winds blowing it, it actually makes me quite nervous. i'm not sure if there are firefighters here or if i need to call somebody because that could get out of hand very quickly. the wind -- all it needs is that wind to give it oxygen. maybe we should call someone. you're going to call someone? okay. thanks. my producer will try to find someone. i see people over here looking at it, as well. and if it wasn't the fire that took the houses down, it was the surge. now, of course here rockaway, we are -- have tlooe bodies of water around us to make a bay. the rockaway inlet and also the atlantic. and the surge pushed in a couple

blocks, if you're familiar with the area, we were driving on new port avenue and homes there were destroyed by the surge that pushed on in. >> stephanie, i talked to a firefighter friend of mine who said the helplessness was the thing that got them because they just couldn't get to that fire the other night because of the storm surge, they couldn't get their vehicles in, they didn't have hoses that could reach that far, so they had to kind of stand by and watch as the fire jumped house to house and wiped out an entire neighborhood where many of them lived. this is a neighborhood heavy with firefighters and cops. you look at these pictures and it absolutely looks like a war zone. >> a war zone, a local bar washed away, firefighters battled neck high floodwaters to rescue 25 people. they used boats to try to get in. there was 170 firefighters that were on the scene trying to get

there, a six alarm blaze. and it went on and as you can see, apparently it's still going on as we're still seeing little hot spots in the fire zone that is left behind us. we did see when we were coming in some people had taken their cars and parked they will up on the bridges to try to escape the surge. that they did, but you unfortunately, homes all along this peninsula were inundated by water. >> we'll let you go and hopefully get that last remnant of the fire put out there. thanks so much. the new york stock exchange reopens this morning even though much of the area around it is without power. you'd have to go all the way back to the blizzard of 1888 for the last time the stock market was closed for two consecutive days because of weather. let's get an early look at the markets as we get all up in your business this morning. karl ly carolyn roth is live in zurich for us. what impact has the storm had on on the markets? >> reporter: well, as you said,

the my next and nyse should be back open for trading today. both said they didn't suffer any imagine damages. now, as for the how the markets will react, that's tricky to say. futures are trading and at this point they are indicating a higher open. but keep in mind that after so many days of closure, there's a lot of volume coming back to the market and we could see a spike in volatility when markets do open. and let's not forget that we are still in the thick of third quarter earnings season. whether is a lot of economic data to digest. so we could be in for a rocky ride today. and of course everyone is gearing up for the all-important october jobs report which will be out on friday as planned. now, markets may be opened, but there is a good chance that not all bankers and traders will be back on their desks because a couple of the banks, especially in lower manhattan, they may not

open just yet. bank of america, american express are keeping their lower manhattan of offices closed. >> carolyn, thanks so much. still ahead this morning, sandy's wrath wasn't just a story about rain and storm surge. also bringing heavy snow to west virginia. in fact two feet in some places. we'll talk to bill karins about the storm's lasting impacts. and with just six days to go until the presidential election, the candidates return today to the campaign trail after a hiatus for sandy. we'll have the latest on the race including new polls in ohio, florida and virginia where this race will be decided six days from now. i have now ordered that all

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this is the only thing we've ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. make your mark with ink from chase. welcome back. it's 5:44 in the morning here in new york city. across the river this hoboken, one by within they're going through pumping water out of basements. that town almost completely under water.pumping water out o. that town almost completely under water. look at these pictures. high winds combined with a cold front spread blizzard conditions across west virginia and surrounding states. here with the latest, bill karins. the storm, the september of it, is just staggering. >> nothing to compare it to.

it's just a freak storm. the storm itself right now is in a much weakened state. the concern is for all the people without power and heat in their homes. they have now wrapped in all the cold air in the midwest and now there are windchills approaching new york city and all of jersey in the upper 30s to low 40s. so this is not weather to be in your homes. and a lot of people coming in to work here saying it's so cold in their homes and now you're looking at you can't stay in your houses either. so usually after a hurricane, you don't have power, that's expected. but usually it's warm. not with this one. the storm is located almost over the top of buffalo, new york. still rain wrapping around it and though. the people in the great lakes did not have any picnic yesterday either. winds gusting 40 to 60 miles an hour yesterday and wave damage on all of the southern portions of great lakes. it stuck lingering over the top and slowly exiting over the next

two days. a little bit of snow left over in west virginia, but the majority of it is already on the ground. so today's highs still in the low to mid-50s many areas. so kind of a raw damp day out there. the rest of the country looks just fine. as far as the cleanup forecast goes and the power crews, it does look like as we head through the weekend, we have dry weather approaching, so that will be good and it won't be that windy either, so should be safe to get out there and good some of the tree limbs down hanging out there in the sky. and the one they think we'll be talking about for years to come with sandy, the estimates are as high as $50 billion. again, the only storm it compareses to is katrina, but this is up there with wilma and rita and andrew. and those are adjusted for inflation, too. a populated corridor of the country, we knew it would be bad. >> bill, thanks so much.

pleer appreciate all your reporting. hurricane sandy pushed the presidential election out of the headlines for a couple days, but the latest poll puts the canned dads in a statistic al tie among likely voters. in terms of the key swing states, that cbs "new york times" quinnipiac poll shows the president up five points in ohio. that's holding steady between fr two weeks ago. if in florida, a statistical tie. similar story in virginia. mitt romney is within two points. the ohio is ahead in both ohio and virginia in early voting. today mitt romney making multiple stops in the state of florida. yesterday he took a break from campaigning, turning a dayton, ohio rally into a relief event for storm victims on the east

coast. >> i appreciate your generosity. it's part of the american spirit, the american way to give to people who are in need. and your generosity this morning touches my heart. we won't be able to solve all the problems with our effort this morning, though a lot of people will still be looking for goods even though we've gathered these things as you know, but i know that one of the things i've learned in life is that you make the difference you can and you can't always solve all the problems yourself, but you can make the difference in the life of one or two people. >> president obama focused on hurricane sandy and the damage it left, former president bill clinton picking up the slack taking on some extra campaign events on behalf of the president. today president clinton heads to iowa. but during a stop in minneapolis yesterday, he used sandy to sam mitt romney's approach to climate change. >> he ridiculed the president, ridiculed the president for his efforts to fight global warming

and economically beneficial ways. he said, oh, you're going to -- [ inaudible ] my n. my part of america, we would have liked it if swoon could have done that yesterday. all up and down the east coast, there are mayors, many of them republicans who are being told you have to move these houses back away from the ocean. you have to lift them up, climate change is going to raise the water levels on a permanent basis. if you want your town insured, you have to do this. in the real world, barack obama's policies work better. >> you'll see much more of president clinton over the next several days. the romney campaign did not respond directly to president clinton's at it be tacks. instead republicans highlighted the political geography at play saying the obama campaign is playing defense in traditionally democratic states like minnesota. still ahead, the incredible

story of a new york city hospital evacuated after its generators failed and the nurses, doctors and eventmts wh carried premature babies to safety in the middle of the storm. progresso this reduced sodium soup says it may help lower cholesterol, how does it work? you just have to eat it as part of your heart healthy diet. step 1. eat the soup. all those veggies and beans, that's what may help lower your cholesterol and -- well that's easy [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

we told you there is no firm time table yet for when the subway system will be fully

operational. mayor bloomberg said it could be four or five days. accept s seven subway tunnels are flooded. the last time they experienced significant flooding was in december of 1992 when a nor'easter hit the city. those floods resulted in extended interrupts of subway service and forced trains to remain closed for ten days after the storm. we showed you some of the pictures from hoboken where the mayor says sandy flooded half the town. new york giants quarterback eli manning wasn't spared. this is a photograph of him showing him taking his own picture of the flooded lobby of his building there in hoboken. har harry, looks like an ugly scene there. >> reporter: absolutely. it's hard to even recognize this city. i actually live two towns over and i come here all the time and i literally didn't even know

where i was once i got to the is in your center of town. right this back of me you see the amount of water that is being taken out of a parking garage. that's about 2 million gallons of water in that parking garage and it will take about 18 hours to unfill that whole garage. so people are still stranded in their homes. the national guard and police are working hard and they will try to save these people as soon as possible. so definitely a tough scene, but everyone is working as hard as possible. willie, back to you. >> that's a big and busy town, so it will take a long while to get all that water out. now an update on the harrowing situation at a new york city hospital. the evacuation there where doctors and nurses literally carrying their patients to safety. >> reporter: new york university medical, one of the most respected teaching hospitals in

new york city, found itself in crisis at the height of the storm. flooded with up to 12 feet of water, it lost power, including its backup generator. dozens of ambulances from across the city lined up in front of and around the hospital and through the night moved more than 200 patients. some adults and even babies in critical condition to other facilities. including julia, who pregnant and in labor, had to be carried down several flights of stairs. >> i wouldn't know what to do. where do we go. she's having contractions every 30 seconds. they took her off the bed, got her on this med flight and proceeded to slide her really slowly down eight flights of stairs. >> reporter: they were told they would have to evacuate to mount sinai medical center. everyone was in the dark and julia is in severe pain. >> just closing my eyes,

breathing, having positive thoughts. >> i was holding a cell phone above her while they were putting in the i.v. and epidural. >> reporter: with all of lower manhattan in the dark, the evacuation was all the more challenging. hundreds pitched in and it took them all night to get everyone out. hospital officials had discharged hundreds of patients last weekend in advance of the storm. officials are still investigating the cause of the generator failure. >> that's unbelievable. using the light of a cell phone to light the epidural. a member of the hospital's board there at nyu says the generators are not, quote, state-of-the-art saying they're now undergoing a $3 billion upgrade. still ahead on way too early, what are you doing up at this hour? and morning joe just moments away. jack, you're a little boring. boring. boring. [ jack ] after lauren broke up with me,

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